Steven Universe: Pearl's Pursuit of Hope (Ch2)
by Persons100
Summary: The world is saved and beach city is rebuilding after Spinel's attack. Things are beginning to settle down for Steven. But when something strange crashes nearby Beach City, Pearl comes face to face with the hope of bringing something back. Even at the cost of her own morality. Will Steven be able to save her from herself? Or is the unbeatable enemy Steven Universe faces within?


**Chapter 2**

He awoke again but there was just darkness. No clouds of pink wheat from Lion, if he was even near the boy. _Where am I? _He feels the right side of his body is burning, like it's on fire. _Why is my arm hurting?_ He looks and sees his arm is gleaming black like it was ivory polish. Something is supporting him - he leans heavily on it. There are dark branches above him and the smell of charred dirt. He is out in the forest, he realizes. But he can't move. To his right is a massive stone. In the pitch dark it almost looks like a rose…

He hears a snap of a branch. Where he is, there is a glowing deep inside. It fills him up with warmth. It's so powerful. It's so familiar….

He awakens with a gasp but can't breathe. There is a moment of panic but it subsides when he realizes in Lion's mane again.

'Lion!' He grumbles and pushes himself out of the pink field. Again. 'Lion, what is going on with you?' He sees the beast curled up like some house cat. Steven thought he was shaking so he pulls his blanket over.

The clock read as 1am. He sighed. _No sleepy for Steevy._ He walks to the bathroom downstairs. The front door is lock, closed, and uncracked by Pearl. It's a good thing. Steven considers what he would even say to Pearl if she were in the same spot.

Steven washes his face. The cold water feels good. Refreshing. When he opens his eyes in the mirror, a different face is staring at him. A man with no gem but with skin that was black and shining. It struck him the same color he saw in his dream. His eyes were the color of a rose. And he looked at Steven closely.

Steven screamed and tumbled backward. The rug caught his feet and he fell back hard. He was in throbbing swirls with two pink dots in the middle ebbing outward like a distant beckon.

'Steven! Steven, wake up! Steven!' He heard the name through a tunnel. He touched the light and awoke to the face of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl peering down at him. Pearl gasped and embraced him. 'Oh, Steven! I came in and I saw you just-just lying there! I was so scared.'

Steven groaned. His head felt tender. He saw the towel hanger laying beside him. 'What...happened?'

'Uh, you tell us, dude,' Amethyst said incredulously. 'Pearl found you like this. Her scream woke up the whole city…'

Pearl gave Amethyst a look. 'Of course I screamed. He was unconscious!'

Garnet knelt down and checked the back of Steven's head. 'Hm. Looks like it's just a bump.' She rubbed his head. 'Thankfully. Do you remember what happened?'

Steven propped himself upon the wall. What did happen? He woke from Lion again after that odd dream. He went downstairs, looked in the mirror…

'The mirror!' He shouted, startling the three.

'Uh, the mirror?' Amethyst smirked. 'You saw yourself and scared yourself unconscious?'

'No, no!' Steven shook his head. 'I-I saw something in the mirror! It was this man I didn't recognize but he had shining patches of skin, just like in my dream. He was staring at me from the mirror. I must have slipped and hit my head!'

The three stared at him. Saying it aloud, he realized how insane it sounded.

'Were you astroprojecting?' Pearl asked.

'Maybe?' Steven shook his head. "But usually, it ends when I wake up. But I saw this face when I was awake, like I was still asleep.'

'Maybe you were still half-asleep?' Garnet suggested.

'No, I was awake. I know because whenever I wake up, I always go to the bathroom to wash my face. The cold water helps me sleep.'

'Wouldn't warm water help you sleep? Cold water just wakes you up more.' Amethyst said.

'No, I like the cold water. It makes me feel like a cozy igloo.' Steven snuggled his arms.

'We're getting off topic, here!' Pearl shouted. 'This-this dream, what else did you see?'

Steven stood slowly. 'I remember his arm was...hurt? It felt hot but it was covered in the same black liquid I saw in the mirror. I smelled smoke...he was beside a big boulder.'

'A boulder?' Pearl said, kneeling closer. 'What did the boulder look like?'

'It...it kind of looked like a rose. But without the pedals. Just the core shape…'

The small room was silent. Garnet rubbed her chin. 'Hm. Does that ring a bell to you Pearl?'

Steven saw Pearl seemed to be thinking of something else. Her pale eyes darted over something he couldn't see. She shook her head slowly. 'No...no it doesn't."

Steven didn't say anything. Rather, he said he was ok and convinced the others it was because he _was _half asleep. He was being silly and laughed with Amethyst. Garnet nodded and said to put ice on that bump.

But he knew something deeper was at hand. Something Pearl knew but the others didn't.

If there was a moment that triggered her almost complete mental departure into what Steven could only surmise as daydreams, when was it? What was the connection with this man he saw?

Something occurred to Steven. It was some point during the night of the shower. She seemed fine after. Once the streaks ended at around 12pm, the whole community walked back together. There was laughter and there was joy. Steven almost forgot about her distance in that moment as he walked beside his family. But she was upon an island on that hill. In fact, Steven considered afterward, she went further away at some point during the shower.

Because it was after, when the group stood up, with their smiles and joyful dispositions, that Steven saw Pearl was deep in thought over something. Her eyes that night were upon the sky - unobtainable. She sat on that field, looking at something far out. Steven thought maybe it was just another meteor but what if it wasn't...

Something that night happened. Something that no one else saw but her.

But what could he say without pushing her too far? She was fragile now. Too many questions and she could close off completely. He knows pushing her won't help in any way.

Yet...

As he walked back up the wooden stairs, he looked back briefly at her. He saw it then in that bathroom and he sees again as she walked to her door: she knew something but wasn't sharing.

Whatever it was, Steven felt he needed to know. Because he felt, with the same weight as a cold wet stone in his stomach, she knew exactly what that vision meant.


End file.
